Official: Jobs cut in bank merger

Mark Vincent of SignArt cleans the new Bank of the Ozarks sign after removing First National Bank's old logo on Lafayette Street in Shelby on Thursday.

Brittany Randolph

By Matthew Tessnear

Published: Monday, August 5, 2013 at 08:19 PM.

Bank leaders aren’t saying how many jobs are gone, but Bank of the Ozarks officials have confirmed that positions were eliminated when its merger with First National Bank became final last week.

First National Bank’s 14 former branches opened Thursday under the Bank of the Ozarks name.

For several years, First National had been operating under a regulatory agreement with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, wrote Helen Jeffords, Carolina foothills market president for Bank of the Ozarks, in an email.

That order from the bank’s federal regulator came in 2011 and, citing unsound practices in credit risk management and earnings performance, required more board oversight and strategic planning, as well as for the bank to keep more adequate levels of capital.

“First National Bank had many people devoting large amounts of their time to complying with that regulatory agreement. Instantly upon merging with Bank of the Ozarks, that regulatory agreement went away, eliminated massive amounts of work and the need for a number of positions. As a result of this, along with other administrative changes, we eliminated some positions immediately following closing.”

Bank officials would not say how many jobs or which positions were cut.

Bank leaders aren’t saying how many jobs are gone, but Bank of the Ozarks officials have confirmed that positions were eliminated when its merger with First National Bank became final last week.

First National Bank’s 14 former branches opened Thursday under the Bank of the Ozarks name.

For several years, First National had been operating under a regulatory agreement with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, wrote Helen Jeffords, Carolina foothills market president for Bank of the Ozarks, in an email.

That order from the bank’s federal regulator came in 2011 and, citing unsound practices in credit risk management and earnings performance, required more board oversight and strategic planning, as well as for the bank to keep more adequate levels of capital.

“First National Bank had many people devoting large amounts of their time to complying with that regulatory agreement. Instantly upon merging with Bank of the Ozarks, that regulatory agreement went away, eliminated massive amounts of work and the need for a number of positions. As a result of this, along with other administrative changes, we eliminated some positions immediately following closing.”

Bank officials would not say how many jobs or which positions were cut.

“With Bank of the Ozarks, we are once again able to focus almost all of our time, energy and attention on serving our customers and our communities,” Jeffords wrote. “To do this, we have made almost no changes in our staff of tellers, customer service representatives, branch managers, lenders, loan assistants, trust staff, mortgage staff and investment personnel.”

Bank of the Ozarks CEO George Gleason previously said decisions on staffing would be made after the bank merger, which was first announced Jan. 24 and became official Thursday.

The former First National branch on South Post Road in Patterson Springs is set to close in September. Bank officials said that is due to a history of crime, not the bank merger.

Jeffords recently said there are no plans for other former First National branches to close.

Reach Matthew Tessnear at 704-669-3331, at mtessnear@shelbystar.com or on Twitter
@MatthewTessnear.